This blog is written by a journalist based in Mumbai who writes about cities, the environment, developmental issues, the media, women and many other subjects.The title 'ulti khopdi' is a Hindi phrase referring to someone who likes to look at things from the other side.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Where are the teachers?

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, August 30, 2015

The Hindu

We celebrate Teachers’ Day on September 5 every year. But is teaching in
India, especially in schools, considered a desirable or respectable
profession? Do parents encourage their children to become teachers? Or
is it a last resort if all else fails?

These questions came to mind as I read a fascinating article in Economic and Political Weekly on
how a shortage of teachers in Rajasthan is affecting not just female
literacy but also limiting the choices for girls who want to study
science and math (http://www.epw.in/special-articles/why-women-teachers-matter-secondary-education.html).
The article, by Kameshwari Jandhyala and Vimala Ramachandran, is based
on research in three districts in Rajasthan -- Barmer, Baran and Ajmer.
Each of these districts has a substantial percentage of scheduled tribe,
scheduled caste or Muslim population.

The article brought out the inextricable link between literacy and the
availability of teachers. If there is low literacy, especially among
girls, there will be fewer women available to become teachers. If there
are not enough women teachers, in conservative and low literacy areas,
parents will not send girls out to study. As a result, low literacy
amongst girls will continue.

What is even more significant is that although conservative parents are
willing to send girls to primary school, this is where their education
usually ends. Secondary schools are often too far, and parents prefer
girls’ schools with women teachers. But there are not many of them.In
Rajasthan the percentage of women teachers is already below the national
average. It is only 19 per cent at the secondary level and in some of
the poorer districts it goes down to 9. If you look at the enrolment
rate of girls and boys, you see a steady decline in the presence of
girls in the higher classes. The decline is even steeper if you look at
the figures for SCs and STs.

Furthermore, in the few all-girls’ schools offering secondary education,
the science stream often does not exist because there are no women
teachers available to teach these subjects. Unless we increase the
enrolment of girls in secondary schools and colleges, and give them the
chance to study science, we will never have enough women qualified to be
science teachers.

So, on the one hand, governments give incentives to encourage girls to
go to school. Some States offer bicycles, others give free uniforms and
books so that even poor families can send their girls to school. Such
incentives have increased enrolment even if the quality of teaching is
poor. On the other hand, the girls who make it to secondary school are
confined to non-science subjects. Without science education, there is
not even a whiff of a chance of these girls ever entering the world
opened up by science and technology.

The saddest aspect that comes out in the study is the plight of the
girls who somehow manage to convince their families that they want to
pursue science. They can do this only if they go to study in co-ed
schools where there are science teachers. According to the article, the
girls who overcame objections from parents and attended co-ed schools
had a rough time. They spoke of harassment, sexual innuendos, inadequate
physical safety, fear of moving around, even to go to bathrooms within
the institutions, derisive talk, and so on. Women who attended college
or teachers training institutes also faced this. How can you learn and
grow in such an atmosphere?

Reading this, I was reminded of the recent tragic case from Sangrur town
in Punjab where a 16-year-old Dalit girl set herself ablaze and died
because she was harassed by four young men on her way to the government
school. The school was 10 km from her home and these men would follow
her everyday and taunt her. In her dying declaration, she said: “I
dreamt of becoming a doctor. It wasn’t my dream alone but also that of
my brother. I’ve had to kill my dream and take my life. I couldn’t bear
the humiliation. They crossed all limits.”

Multiply this, and what the article narrates, and you get a picture of
what is happening with education in India. General figures of literacy
rates do not tell us the full story. It is this kind of detail — the
lack of women teachers, the need for more women teachers to teach
science, the importance of a safe environment for girls in secondary
schools and colleges — that will make a real difference. It is this that
will give substance to the apparent “right to education” that every
girl is guaranteed in India.

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Journalist, columnist, writer based in Mumbai. Author of "Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia's largest slum" (Penguin, 2000). Worked with The Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express and Himmat Weekly.
Other books include "Whose News? The Media and Women's Issues" edited with Ammu Joseph (published by Sage 1994/2006), "Terror Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out" edited with Ammu Joesph (published by Kali for Women, 2003) and "Missing: Half the Story, Journalism as if Gender Matters" (published by Zubaan, 2010).
Regular columns in The Hindu, Sunday Magazine and on The Hoot (www.thehoot.org).